Context-dependent annotations to database views

ABSTRACT

A technique for context-dependent annotations to database views may include receiving a query including a data selection criterion for retrieving data from a commercial data store, identifying a first view containing a first data set based on the query, displaying a result from the query to a user, and receiving annotation content from the user linked to data in the first view including view-related information to reconstruct the result as displayed to the user when the annotation content was received. The technique may also include receiving a query for a second view of the commercial data from a second user, where the second view includes at least a portion of the first data set, and presenting the second view of the commercial data to the second user, together with any of the annotation content associated with the portion of the first data set included in the second view.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/435,108, filed on Mar. 30, 2012, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional App. No. 61/469,483, filed on Mar. 30, 2011, where theentire content of each of the foregoing is hereby incorporated byreference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This document relates to annotating commercial data.

BACKGROUND

Various techniques for gathering, analyzing, and viewing commercial dataexist. For example, these existing techniques can be used to generatereports that draw data from vast databases of commercial data. Forexample, such reports may include an analysis of one or more metrics ofone or more products in one or more retail outlets, in one or moregeographic regions, over various time periods, etc.

One often uses such reports to gain insight into commercial activity.For example, one may learn from a report that a particular product isdoing well in certain commercial outlets, and conjecture how to improvethe product's performance in other commercial outlets. These insightsare often recorded (electronically or otherwise) on the report in such away as to be shared with other viewers of the report.

SUMMARY

In general, in one aspect, a commercial data store containing commercialdata; an annotation data store containing annotations associated withthe commercial data store; a report generator for presenting data fromthe commercial data store pertinent to a query, and an annotation fromthe annotation data store pertinent to the data wherein the annotationincludes an associated view of the commercial data under considerationat the time the annotation was made.

In general, in another aspect: presenting a first view of commercialdata to a first user; receiving a data selection criterion from theuser; identifying a first data set based on the selection criterion;receiving annotation content from the user; associating the annotationcontent and the first view of the commercial data with the first dataset; receiving a query for a second view of the commercial data from asecond user, in which the second view includes at least a portion of thefirst data set; presenting the second view of the commercial data to thesecond user, together with the annotations associated with the portionof the first data set included in the second view.

Implementations may include one or more of the following features: Thecommercial data is stored a database containing records, each recordcorresponds to a commercial item, and each annotation is stored in acorresponding record of the commercial item to which the annotationpertains. Available commercial items include a product, a collection ofproducts, a store, a collection of stores, a transaction, a collectionof transactions, a time, and a time frame. The annotations are stored ina database separate from the commercial data, and wherein theannotations are linked to the commercial data by one or more keys. Theannotations are stored in a database separate from the commercial data,and wherein the annotations are linked to the commercial data by one ormore dimensional constraints. The annotations are presented as athreaded conversation. The annotations are presented chronologically.The first data set is stored in a database comprising records, and inwhich each record corresponds to a commercial item, the method furthercomprising storing the annotation content in the records of the firstdata set. The first data set is stored in a database comprising records,and in which each record corresponds to a commercial item, the methodfurther comprising linking the annotation content to the records of thefirst data set.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention described herein may be understood byreference to the following figures, which are provided by way of exampleand not of limitation:

FIGS. 1A-B are exemplary records in a commercial database.

FIGS. 1C-D are schematic depictions of associating annotations withcommercial data.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a data annotation system.

FIGS. 3A-B are schematic views of an exemplary user interface for thedata annotation system.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for annotating data.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for presenting annotated data.

Like references numbers refer to like structures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Participants in a market often maintain or have access to variouscollections commercial data. In this document, “participant” refers toany entity participating in a market, whether or the supply side ordemand side, including retailers, manufacturers, publishers, consumers,etc. Moreover, the term “market participant” includes third-partyanalysts or aggregators of market data, even if they do not conducttransactions in the market itself.

Commercial data can be, but need not be, maintained in a database. Inwhat follows, reference will be made to various database concepts (e.g.,data in a record or field, categories or dimensions of data, views of adatabase, etc.). However, this database-type language is employed forconvenience, and the data sets described herein need not bear a databasestructure unless such a requirement is otherwise specified. Moreover,reference will be made below to records in a single database. Inpractice, the information described below may actually be distributedacross several databases or other data structures and linked in variousways. Efficient or optimal implementations of the techniques describedbelow depend on various factors independent of the techniquesthemselves, such as the volume of data, the number of users, the cost orcapabilities of available hardware, the financial resources of theentity implementing the techniques, etc.

Market participants often have a variety of existing analyticalplatforms at their disposal to analyze commercial data. These analyticalplatforms can either be in-house at the market participant, availablefrom an outside service provider, or a combination of the two. Theseanalytical platforms are generally capable of identifying desired data,computing various metrics associated with the desired data, anddisplaying these metrics and/or desired data in the form of a report.For example, a market participant interested in the performance of aparticular product may use an analytical platform to identify the totalvolume of sales of the product at particular store, collection ofstores, geographic area, etc. and compare that total volume to othercommercial data (e.g., sales of a competing product; projected sales ofthe selected product, sales in a different store, collection of stores,or geographic area, etc.)

A common practice is to annotate particular reports. Such annotations,together with the reports themselves, often facilitate insights into thereported data or previously unmeasured market behavior. Such insights,for example, can relate to the effectiveness of a given marketingcampaign, product attributes that consumers are particularly sensitiveto, previously unmeasured or unobserved phenomena, or other valuableactionable conclusions. In turn, insights can build on or amplify eachother, increasing their collective value to the market participant.

However, when annotations are made in association with a particularreport, those annotations are typically not available in other reports,even if those other reports are similar to the annotated report or drawon the same data. Thus, users of the subsequent report may not have thebenefit of the original annotations.

Moreover, the presence of multiple annotations made with respect to acertain collection of data may indicate a particular significance of thedata. Thus, the annotations themselves, by their mere existence or type(and not necessarily their content) can collectively provide additionalinsights into the data. However, when the annotations are distributedacross various different reports, their full number or scope may bedifficult to identify.

The techniques described below can help mitigate these problems and makeadvantageous use of annotations on data, by associating annotations withthe data itself, as opposed to a particular report.

FIG. 1A is an exemplary record 10 of commercial data in a database. Therecord may correspond to a commercial item, for example, a particularproduct, collection of products, store, collection of stores,transaction, collection of transactions, time or time frame, anothercommercially relevant event, etc. For the sake of convenience, theremainder of the techniques in this document will take place in thecontext in which the record corresponds to a single product, althoughthe techniques are not limited to this context.

The record 10 includes various attributes 12 and values 14. Theseattributes 12 correspond to potential properties of the product (e.g.,brand name, flavor, size, color, etc.), and the values correspond toparticular properties of the particular product (e.g., Acme, cherry,large, red, etc.). For a given product, not all attributes 12 need havevalues 14. For example, a record corresponding to an automobile isunlikely to have a meaningful value of a “flavor” attribute.

The attributes 14 may also reflect commercial activity involving theproduct, including instances in which the product was sold, the price atwhich it was sold, the store at which it was sold, whether or not it wasincluded in a promotion or special offer at the time of the sale, etc.

Traditionally, a report can be prepared by identifying desired records(e.g., all automobiles sold in a specified geographic area during aspecified time), extracting some or all of the information included inthe desired records (e.g., sales volumes), and presenting theinformation in a desired form (e.g., in a chart, in a graph, in a table,etc.), and served in desired document (e.g., word processor document,portable document format (PDF) document, spreadsheet, etc.). Traditionalannotations of such a report would be recorded in the document. However,as described more fully below, annotations are associated with the dataitself (rather than a document containing the data) using the currenttechniques.

FIG. 1B is an annotated version of the exemplary record of FIG. 1A. InFIG. 1B, a user has made an annotation implicating this record with thecomment, “Why did sales spike here?” This annotation, together withother information as described below, is stored (in someimplementations) in a separate annotation field 16 of the record itself.A “view” may also be associated with an annotation. The view includesinformation sufficient to reconstruct what was being displayed at thetime the annotation was made. For example, if the user who made aparticular annotation was viewing a report generated by a query, thenthe query may be included in the “view” field. Other view-relatedinformation, such as cursor or mouse positioning, highlighting, zoomlevels, display-related options, etc., may also be included in the“view” field, to fully reconstruct what was being displayed at the timethe annotation was made.

In some implementations, the annotation fields 16 need not be part ofthe record 10, but rather may be contained stored as separate andindependent records themselves, even in a different database. In theseimplementations, the appropriate annotations can be linked with theircorresponding record(s), e.g., via a key. This is shown in FIG. 1C

As is shown in FIG. 1D, in some implementations, annotations may besimilarly linked with certain dimensions (or combinations of dimensions,including intersections of dimensional constraints), and not necessarilydirectly associated with records 10. This association may be static ordynamic. A static association links an annotation to the dimensions,dimensional constraints, etc. as they existed in the database at thetime of the annotation. Conversely, a dynamic association links theannotation to dimensions, dimensional constraints, etc. irrespective ofhow the database changes or which records 10 currently satisfy thedimensional constraints.

For example, one may associate an annotation with a particular flavorand a particular brand. If that association were static, then a newproduct record entering the database after the annotation was made wouldnot be associated with the annotation. However, if the association weredynamic (and the product was from the particular manufacturer and hadthe particular flavor) then it would be associated with the annotation,even though that product's record did not exist at the time theannotation was made.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a data annotation system. The system 20includes a data store 22 of commercial data, a data store 23 ofannotations, a query handler 24, an aggregation/disaggregation module26, a data analysis module 28, a content assembly module 30, a socialmodule 32, and a content server 34. Each of the various components 22-34of the system can be implemented as software, hardware, or a combinationof hardware and software as described more fully below. The components22-34 are in mutual data communication, either directly or indirectlythrough other components of the system 20. The data communication can beimplemented in any way, such as by direct wired or wirelesscommunication between separate hardware components, logicalcommunication within a hardware component shared by two or morecomponents 22-34 of the system, etc. Although the components 22-34 ofthe system 20 are depicted in separate blocks of the block diagram, insome implementations some components may be contained in, or overlapwith, other components. Conversely, the components 22-34 need not beimplemented so as to share hardware in common. One or more communicationlayers (e.g., implemented by routers, load balancers, web servers, etc.)may facilitate communication between and amongst the components 22-34.

The data store 22 includes the database of commercial data as describedabove. The query handler 24 is operable to identify records that areresponsive to a given query. The query may be submitted in any knownform (e.g., in Structured Query Language (“SQL”), natural language, orother query form). Once identified, the query handler 24 passes therecords (or links to the records) to other modules, as appropriate.

The aggregation/disaggregation module 26 operates in one of two modes:aggregation or disaggregation. In aggregation mode, the module 26combines the information in various records to a level of aggregationdesired by a user or another component of the system 20. Aggregation caninvolve adding or otherwise combining numerical values, combining orconcatenating text values, removing or ignoring text or numericalvalues, etc. For example, if a user desired an analysis of all beveragesales in a particular store, then the query handler 24 may returnrecords corresponding to coffee sales, tea sales, and flavored watersales. The aggregator may add certain numerical information (e.g.,number of sales), average certain information (e.g., price of eachsale), ignore certain information (e.g., the flavor of each particularbeverage sold), etc.

In some implementations, when aggregating data points, theaggregation/disaggregation module 26 includes annotations of individualdata points into the aggregated data points. For example, if variousproducts are integrated into a single record to describe the entireproduct line, then the annotations made on each of the individualproducts will be incorporated as annotations for the single aggregatedrecord describing the product line.

In some implementations, only a subset of annotations will be includedunder aggregation operations. These annotations can be included orexcluded based on any criteria; e.g., the annotation type, theannotation author (e.g., annotations from users in a certain group wouldnot be aggregated; annotations from users in a certain group would be,etc.), annotation content (e.g., aggregating annotations with or withoutkey words, etc.), or other criteria.

In the disaggregation mode, the aggregation/disaggregation module 26 isoperable to propagate annotations of aggregated data points down to thedata point's constituent components. For example, if an annotation ismade on an aggregated data point representing a product line, the module26 identifies the particular products that make up the product line. Aswith aggregation of annotations, the disaggregation of annotations canoptionally be suppressed according to any desired criteria.

The data analysis module 28 is operable to compute or otherwisedetermine desired information not contained in the records themselves.For example, such information can involve statistical quantitiescomputed from a collection of records, comparisons across collections ofrecords, evaluation of metrics pertinent to the records, interpolations,extrapolations, or projections using the data in the records, etc. Thedata analysis module 28 is also operable to draw data from othersources, either internal or external to the system 20, in performing itsanalyses.

The content assembly module 30 is operable to collect the informationcontained in or associated with provided records, together with derivedinformation provided by the data analysis module 28, and combine orpresent the information in a desired form. In some implementations, thecontent assembly module 30 can output documents, scripts, source code,executable code, or combinations of the above to present theinformation. For example, the content assembly module can produce one ormore markup language documents, such as hypertext markup language(HTML), extensible markup language (XML); as well as source or objectcode in Java, JavaScript, FLASH, or data in other formats suitable forpresentation. In some implementations, the content assembly module canoutput hyperlinks (or other references) that point to annotation contentstored in a remote location. In some implementations, the contentassembly module 30 is operable to interface with special-purposesoftware or hardware to present content.

The social module 32 is operable to maintain a social environment inconnection with the data annotation system 20. In some implementations,the social environment includes one or more streams of annotations madeby one or more users of the system 20.

In some implementations, the users of the system 20 are organized (ormay self-organize) according to relations. For example, users working ina given department or on a given project may, by default, be related inthe social environment. Additionally or alternatively, users mayinitiate relationships amongst each other for any reason. In someimplementations, characteristics of the relation (e.g., coworker,classmate, friend, etc.) is stored by the social module. The collectionof the users and their relations is referred to as the social graph ofthe system 20. For a given user, the collection of other users who areconnected (directly or indirectly) to the given user is referred to asthe social graph of the user.

The content server 34 is operable to present output of the system 20 toone or more users. In some implementations, the content server 34includes a web server operable to serve the markup documents, source, orexecutable code to the users of the system 20. In some implementations,the content server 34 is operable to interface with special purposeviewing software or hardware. In some implementations, the viewingsoftware includes a web browser. In some implementations, the viewingsoftware includes a mobile application suitable for execution on amobile computing device, such a smart phone, tablet, netbook, laptop,etc.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are schematic views of an exemplary user interface forthe data annotation system. FIG. 3A shows a home screen 36. In someimplementations, the home screen 36 is presented to the user uponsigning in to the data annotation system 20. The home screen includes aquery input area 38, a social stream 40, controls 42, and bookmarks 44.The home screen may include other functionality, for examplefunctionality to integrate the system 20 to other aspects of anenterprise or desired user content.

The query input area 38 is operable to accept a query from the user andpass it to the data annotation system 20, to generate a correspondingreport. In some implementations, the query input area 38 includes a“query builder” tool, which is operable to help a user build correctlystructured queries. The query builder can include, for example, variousdrop-down menus for available attributes, constraints on the attributes,and logical connectives amongst constraints.

The social stream 40 includes comments made by other users of the dataannotation system 20. Such comments can include annotations on specificdata or groups of data, or comments not associated with any data. Insome implementations, the social stream 40 can be organized or filteredin various ways, presented in various fashions, etc. For example, a usercan organize comments by author, or in a threaded discussion fashion, orin a chronological fashion, or any other fashion. A user can filter thesocial stream by any criteria; e.g., by user or group of users, bytopic, by keyword, by tag, etc.

The controls 42 allow the user to interact with the data annotationsystem 20. For example, the controls 42 allow the user to respond tocomments, post original comments, subscribe to or unsubscribe fromstreams from others in the user's social graph, change user accountsettings, export content from the system 20, etc.

FIG. 3B shows a report viewing screen in the user interface. The reportviewing screen includes a report area 46, a social area 48, and controls50. In some implementations, the data annotation system presents resultsof a query or a selected data view in this screen.

The report area 46 presents commercial data or analysis served by thecontent server 34. In some implementations, the content is interactivein various ways. For example, in some implementations users can zoom,scroll, color-code, and otherwise manipulate the appearance of the data.In some implementations, users can superimpose or otherwise combinedifferent reports and/or external content.

The social area 48 includes the annotations made in connection with anyof the data currently being shown the report area 46. These annotationscan be organized or filtered in any manner, as described above.

The controls 50 include controls for navigating through the annotationsand/or the data, as well as navigating to other screens (e.g., the homescreen) in the user interface. The controls 50 also includes a controlfor bookmarking particular views or highlighting particular annotations.

Each annotation is associated with one or more views, which may bedifferent from the view currently displayed to the user. For eachannotation, there is a control for switching to the view associated withthe annotation. The controls 50 also include a control for annotatingselected data in the report area 46, as described below.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for annotating data. In step 52, the user ispresented with a desired view of the available commercial data. The userthen identifies data he wishes to annotate (step 54). In someimplementations, the data is identified graphically; e.g., by selectingthe desired data from the desired view with a cursor, mouse, or bytouch.

In some implementations, the data is identified abstractly, by providingselection criteria. For example, the selection criteria could include adatabase query. The database query could, for example, specify anintersection of various dimensional constraints. This intersection couldbe “static,” i.e., identifying a fixed group of products sold in a fixedlocation on a fixed date. The intersection could be “dynamic,” i.e.,identifying data that could change with time. For example, one couldprovide an annotation to the top proportion of performing productswithin a product category. This top proportion often changes with time,as various products' performances change.

Thus, for example, one may annotate a dimension or combination ofdimensions without regard to what records intersect that dimension orthose dimensions at a given time.

After identifying the data to be annotated, the user provides theannotation itself to the system 20 (step 56). The annotation includestext, graphics, audio, video, source code, object code, or links tocontent outside the system 20. In some implementations, the annotationcan also include metadata, such as one or more tags describing contentor categories to which the annotation applies. In some implementations,the annotation can further include aggregation behavior preferences,specifying whether the annotation should or should not be aggregated ordisaggregated as described above.

In step 58, the annotation, together with the particular view underconsideration by the user at the time the annotation was made, isassociated with the selected data. In some implementations, the user mayalso provide additional views to associate with the annotation. In someimplementations, the association of annotations with data can be carriedout in the manner described above in connection with FIGS. 1A-1D; i.e.,by recording the annotation in the record(s) of the identified data. Insome implementations, the annotation can be stored in a separate datastore and linked in any manner to the data (e.g., records of the typedepicted in FIG. 1A-D) itself.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for presenting annotated data. In step 60, a queryfor data (or more generally, any data selection criterion) is received.In some implementations, the query is handled by the query handler 24.Next, data relevant to the query is identified (step 62). In someimplementations, the data is identified by theaggregation/disaggregation module 26 and/or the analysis module 28.Next, pertinent annotations are identified (step 64). These annotationsinclude annotations associated with data responsive to the query, inwhich the association is implemented in any of the ways described above.Next, the annotation content is assembled and packaged with the dataresponsive to the query (step 66). In some implementations the precedingtwo steps are performed by the content assembly module 30. In someimplementations, the previous two steps can be performed asynchronouslywith respect to other activities occurring on the client device. Forexample, while the annotations are being assembled (whether on a clientdevice or remotely), the client may continue to perform other analyticor computing tasks. Finally, the assembled content is presented to theuser (step 68). In some implementations, the presentation takes place ina user interface such as that described in connection with FIGS. 3A and3B.

The above systems, devices, methods, processes, and the like may berealized in hardware, software, or any combination of these suitable forthe control, data acquisition, and data processing described herein.This includes realization in one or more microprocessors,microcontrollers, embedded microcontrollers, programmable digital signalprocessors or other programmable devices or processing circuitry, alongwith internal and/or external memory. This may also, or instead, includeone or more application specific integrated circuits, programmable gatearrays, programmable array logic components, or any other device ordevices that may be configured to process electronic signals. It willfurther be appreciated that a realization of the processes or devicesdescribed above may include computer-executable code created using astructured programming language such as C, an object orientedprogramming language such as C++, or any other high-level or low-levelprogramming language (including assembly languages, hardware descriptionlanguages, and database programming languages and technologies) that maybe stored, compiled or interpreted to run on one of the above devices,as well as heterogeneous combinations of processors, processorarchitectures, or combinations of different hardware and software. Atthe same time, processing may be distributed across devices such as thevarious systems described above, or all of the functionality may beintegrated into a dedicated, standalone device. All such permutationsand combinations are intended to fall within the scope of the presentdisclosure.

In some embodiments disclosed herein are computer program productscomprising computer-executable code or computer-usable code that, whenexecuting on one or more computing devices (such as the devices/systemsdescribed above), performs any and/or all of the steps described above.The code may be stored in a non-transitory fashion in a computer memory,which may be a memory from which the program executes (such as randomaccess memory associated with a processor), or a storage device such asa disk drive, flash memory or any other optical, electromagnetic,magnetic, infrared or other device or combination of devices. In anotheraspect, any of the processes described above may be embodied in anysuitable transmission or propagation medium carrying thecomputer-executable code described above and/or any inputs or outputsfrom same.

It will be appreciated that the methods and systems described above areset forth by way of example and not of limitation. Numerous variations,additions, omissions, and other modifications will be apparent to one ofordinary skill in the art. In addition, the order or presentation ofmethod steps in the description and drawings above is not intended torequire this order of performing the recited steps unless a particularorder is expressly required or otherwise clear from the context.

The meanings of method steps of the invention(s) described herein areintended to include any suitable method of causing one or more otherparties or entities to perform the steps, consistent with thepatentability of the following claims, unless a different meaning isexpressly provided or otherwise clear from the context. Such parties orentities need not be under the direction or control of any other partyor entity, and need not be located within a particular jurisdiction.

Thus for example, a description or recitation of “adding a first numberto a second number” includes causing one or more parties or entities toadd the two numbers together. For example, if person X engages in anarm's length transaction with person Y to add the two numbers, andperson Y indeed adds the two numbers, then both persons X and Y performthe step as recited: person Y by virtue of the fact that he actuallyadded the numbers, and person X by virtue of the fact that he causedperson Y to add the numbers. Furthermore, if person X is located withinthe United States and person Y is located outside the United States,then the method is performed in the United States by virtue of personX's participation in causing the step to be performed.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shownand described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art thatvarious changes and modifications in form and details may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention asdefined by the following claims. The claims that follow are intended toinclude all such variations and modifications that might fall withintheir scope, and should be interpreted in the broadest sense allowableby law.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer program product for context-dependentannotations to database views, the computer program product comprisingcomputer executable code embodied in a non-transitory computer readablemedium that, when executing on one or more computing devices, performsthe steps of: receiving a query from a user including a data selectioncriterion for retrieving data from a commercial data store containingcommercial data arranged in a database with a number of records;identifying a first view containing a first data set based on the query;displaying a result from the query to the user; receiving annotationcontent from the user linked to data in the first view, wherein theannotation content includes view-related information to reconstruct theresult as displayed to the user when the annotation content wasreceived, and wherein the annotation content further includes at leastone aggregation behavior specifying whether an annotation should beaggregated or disaggregated with data in the first data set; receiving aquery for a second view of the commercial data from a second user,wherein the second view includes at least a portion of the first dataset; and presenting the second view of the commercial data to the seconduser, together with any of the annotation content associated with theportion of the first data set included in the second view.
 2. Thecomputer program product of claim 1 wherein the view-related informationincludes cursor positioning.
 3. The computer program product of claim 1wherein the view-related information includes highlighting.
 4. Thecomputer program product of claim 1 wherein the view-related informationincludes a zoom level.
 5. The computer program product of claim 1wherein the view-related information includes a display option.
 6. Thecomputer program product of claim 1 wherein the annotation is linked toa record in the first data set.
 7. The computer program product of claim1 wherein the annotation is linked to a dimension in the first data set.8. The computer program product of claim 7 wherein the annotation islinked to a plurality of dimensions in the first data set.
 9. Thecomputer program product of claim 1 wherein the commercial data includesdata for at least data for at least one of products, stores, andtransactions.
 10. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein thecommercial data includes at least one of a total volume of sales of aproduct at a particular store, a collection of stores, or a geographicarea.
 11. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprisingcode that performs the step of receiving a plurality of annotations tothe first data set from one or more users.
 12. The computer programproduct of claim 11 further comprising code that performs the step ofarranging the plurality of annotations in a threaded conversation. 13.The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising code thatperforms the step of arranging the plurality of annotationschronologically.
 14. The computer program of claim 1 further comprisingcode that performs the step of linking the annotation content to thedata in the first view with a static association that links theannotation to a dimensional constraint of the commercial data as thedimensional constraint existed at the time of the annotation.
 15. Thecomputer program of claim 1 further comprising code that performs thestep of linking the annotation to the data with a dynamic associationthat links the annotation to a dimensional constraint of the commercialdata independent of change to the commercial data.
 16. The computerprogram of claim 1 wherein the annotation content is stored in one ofthe number of records in the commercial data store to which theannotation pertains.
 17. The computer program product of claim 1 whereinthe annotation content is stored in a database separate from thecommercial data store.
 18. The computer program product of claim 17wherein the annotations are linked to the commercial data by one or morekeys.